Comprehension and hazard communication of three pictorial symbols designed for flight manual warnings

Military flight manuals contain three types of warnings; WARNING, CAUTION and NOTE messages convey personal injury or loss of life hazards, material damage hazards and essential information respectively. Effectiveness of these warning messages is crucial for flight safety. A way to enhance warning effectiveness is pairing warning messages with compatible symbols. However, no symbol was used with warning messages in current flight manuals. In this study, three pictorial symbols were designed for flight manual warnings. Comprehension and hazard perception of designed symbols were tested through matching test and psychometric rating, respectively, by Turkish military pilots. Results showed that comprehension and hazard perception of the symbols were sufficient and compatible with content of warning messages in flight manuals. It was concluded that accompanying warning messages with these symbols could contribute to effectiveness of flight manual warnings.     

Effects of emphasis terminology in warning instructions on compliance intent and understandability

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to examine whether differing terminology in warning directives can influence compliance intentions and understandability. Despite its important role for warning effectiveness, warning instructions has not received much attention in warning research. Emphasis terms that can be used in warning directives were investigated.MethodThree experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, participants rated a set of 12 warning directive statements consisted of one basic warning directive, which served as the control and the other 11 one- or two-word emphasis phrases that added to a basic directive. In Experiment 2, participants rated 37 emphasizers on compliance intent. In Experiment 3, participants rated the same emphasizers on understandability.ResultsThe first 2 experiments showed substantial differences in compliance intentions depending on the emphasizer used. For example, some terms and phrases (e.g., “urgent”) produced high compliance intent whereas others showed lower compliance intent (e.g., “recommended”). In Experiment 3, some terms were rated as understandable (e.g., “important”), whereas others were rated as somewhat understandable (e.g., “compulsory”).ConclusionThe addition of emphasis terms to the warning directives influenced people's compliance intent and understandability. In addition, significant correlations were found among compliance intent, understandability, and measures of variability.Practical application. The findings from this research could aid warning designers in selecting understandable wording that gives rise to different levels of compliance intentions.     

Role of sensation seeking and attitudes as mediators between age of driver and risky driving of Powered Two Wheelers

IntroductionThis study examines the effect of age of driver on risky driving of Powered Two-Wheelers (PTW) employing sensation seeking and safety attitudes as mediators.MethodsA survey was conducted with 1299 PTW drivers (1089 males and 210 females) within the age of 18 and 63 years, living in the state of Kerala, India. The questionnaire consisted of 31 items to measure sensation seeking, safety attitude, and risky driving of the drivers.ResultsMediation models were examined using sensation seeking as mediator and secondly safety attitudes as mediators. The relationship between the driver's age and risky driving was fully mediated by all the three variables.Practical applicationsResults of this study suggest that safety strategies should be employed to reduce risky driving tendencies that could be achieved by shaping or adapting the mediators (reducing sensation seeking and enhancing safety attitudes). This goal could be reached by starting to educate children about this at an early stage when they are at school as well as by social learning and safety awareness campaigns.     

Distracting behaviors among teenagers and young,middle-aged,and older adult drivers when driving without and with warnings from an integrated vehicle safety system

IntroductionNegative reinforcement from crash warnings may reduce the likelihood that drivers engage in distracted driving. Alternatively, drivers may compensate for the perceived safety benefit of crash warnings by engaging in distractions more frequently, especially at higher speeds. The purpose of this study was to examine whether warning feedback from an integrated vehicle-based safety system affected the likelihood that various secondary behaviors were present among drivers ages 16–17, 20–30, 40–50, and 60–70.MethodParticipants drove an instrumented sedan with various collision warning systems for an extended period. Ten 5-second video clips were randomly sampled from driving periods at speeds above 25 mph and below 5 mph each week for each driver and coded for the presence of 11 secondary behaviors.ResultsAt least one secondary behavior was present in 46% of video clips; conversing with a passenger (17%), personal grooming (9%), and cellphone conversation (6%) were the most common. The likelihood that at least one secondary behavior was present was not significantly different during periods when drivers received warnings relative to periods without warnings. At least one secondary behavior was 21% more likely to be present at speeds below 5 mph relative to speeds above 25 mph; however, the effect of vehicle speed was not significantly affected by warning presence. Separate models for each of the five most common secondary behaviors also indicated that warnings had no significant effect on the likelihood that each behavior was present.ConclusionsCollision warnings were not associated with significant increases or decreases in the overall likelihood that teen and adult drivers engaged in secondary behaviors or the likelihood of the behaviors at speeds above 25 mph or below 5 mph.Practical applicationsThere was no evidence that forward collision warning and other technologies like those in this study will increase or decrease distracted driving.     

地铁乘客火灾应激反应过程模型构建与分析

为提高地铁乘客的火灾应对能力,基于应激反应模型,构建地铁火灾应激反应过程理论模型;收集357份有效问卷数据,采用因子分析和结构方程模型(SEM),探讨个体特性、特定情境、认知评价、社会支持、应对方式和应对结果6个变量及变量各维度之间的相互影响关系.研究结果表明:个体特性可以正向调节心理反应结果,特定情境变量可以反向调节...     

Forward collision warning based on a driver model to increase drivers’ acceptance

Abstract

Objective: Systems that can warn the driver of a possible collision with a vulnerable road user (VRU) have significant safety benefits. However, incorrect warning times can have adverse effects on the driver. If the warning is too late, drivers might not be able to react; if the warning is too early, drivers can become annoyed and might turn off the system. Currently, there are no methods to determine the right timing for a warning to achieve high effectiveness and acceptance by the driver. This study aims to validate a driver model as the basis for selecting appropriate warning times. The timing of the forward collision warnings (FCWs) selected for the current study was based on the comfort boundary (CB) model developed during a previous project, which describes the moment a driver would brake. Drivers’ acceptance toward these warnings was analyzed. The present study was conducted as part of the European research project PROSPECT (“Proactive Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists”).

Methods: Two warnings were selected: One inside the CB and one outside the CB. The scenario tested was a cyclist crossing scenario with time to arrival (TTA) of 4?s (it takes the cyclist 4?s to reach the intersection). The timing of the warning inside the CB was at a time to collision (TTC) of 2.6?s (asymptotic value of the model at TTA = 4?s) and the warning outside the CB was at TTC = 1.7?s (below the lower 95% value at TTA = 4?s). Thirty-one participants took part in the test track study (between-subjects design where warning time was the independent variable). Participants were informed that they could brake any moment after the warning was issued. After the experiment, participants completed an acceptance survey.

Results: Participants reacted faster to the warning outside the CB compared to the warning inside the CB. This confirms that the CB model represents the criticality felt by the driver. Participants also rated the warning inside the CB as more disturbing, and they had a higher acceptance of the system with the warning outside the CB. The above results confirm the possibility of developing wellsaccepted warnings based on driver models.

Conclusions: Similar to other studies’ results, drivers prefer warning times that compare with their driving behavior. It is important to consider that the study tested only one scenario. In addition, in this study, participants were aware of the appearance of the cyclist and the warning. A further investigation should be conducted to determine the acceptance of distracted drivers.     

Explicitness of consequence information in warnings

Four experiments were carried out to assess effects of product warning explicitness on purchase preferences and caution in use. Explicitness was defined as the specificity or detail with which potential injury consequences were described. All experiments employed a paradigm in which warnings varying in explicitness were described for familiar products. Subjects rated various perceptions of the products, purchase preferences, and intent to act cautiously in using the product. Results indicated that more explicit warnings were associated with greater levels of perceived dangerousness, hazard understanding, injury severity, and manufacturers' concern. While explicit warnings were also associated with an increased intent to act cautiously in using products, no clear relationship was found between explicitness and purchase preferences. It is recommended that product warnings should be explicit regarding injury consequences, especially where injuries may be severe. Given such information, product users, particularly those less familiar with a product, are more likely to exercise greater caution during use. Further, manufacturers' concern that explicit warnings may negatively impact sales appears to be unwarranted.     

Improving the effectiveness of warnings by increasing the appropriateness of their information content: some hypotheses about human compliance

The ways that warnings are administered vary greatly. A warning may come as a message broadcast on the radio about severe weather, as a flashing light in the cockpit of an airplane, or as an audible smoke alarm. Typically, warnings provide an auditory or visual signal to assist in the detection of an anticipated stimulus. However, warnings tend to operate in an all or none mode: either the warning is present, or it is not. Consequently, the information they provide is limited. If warnings are provided too often, their information content becomes even lower and frequent false alarms render them ineffective because of the “cry-wolf” effect. On the other hand, if warnings are not administered frequently enough, they result in too many potentially costly misses. In this conceptual paper, it is argued that the effectiveness of warnings might be significantly improved if warnings are made more “intelligent” by providing information about the likelihood of the occurrence of the stimulus. Several representative cases are discussed and analyzed in order to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed methods.     

Effects of an integrated collision warning system on teenage driver behavior

IntroductionCrash warning systems have been shown to provide safety benefits, but no studies have examined how teenagers respond. This study sought to find out whether young, inexperienced drivers change behavior in response to warnings.MethodsForty 16–17 year-olds drove an instrumented vehicle equipped with a system that warned for lane departures and potential rear-end and lane change/merge crashes. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups, and their driving was monitored for 14 weeks during 2011–12. For the experimental group, this included a treatment period, when crash alerts were received by drivers, and baseline and post-treatment periods, when warnings were recorded but not received. The control group never received warnings. Data were analyzed to determine whether warnings were associated with changes in driving behavior.ResultsA total of 15,039 trips were analyzed. Lane drifts accounted for 73% of warnings. Forward collision warning rates doubled for all drivers during the treatment period and continued at an increased rate post-treatment. This was likely a result of the fact that, as time went on, all drivers spent more time following vehicles at close distances. Receiving alerts was associated with effects on following and lane-changing behavior, including more time spent following at close distances (17%), fewer lateral drifts (37%) and fewer unsignaled lane changes (80%). Receiving warnings wasn't associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in secondary tasks.ConclusionsWarning systems may result in improved lane-keeping and turn-signal behaviors by novice drivers, but there is some indication they may result in more close-following behaviors.Practical applicationsThere is some evidence that lane departure warning may improve turn-signal use for young drivers. While there is no evidence of safety benefits from the other types of warnings, there is some evidence of an increase in close-following behavior but no increase in secondary tasks due to the presence of those capabilities.     

Stigma at work: The psychological costs and benefits of the pressure to work safely

Introduction: Workplace accidents and injuries can be quite costly to both individual employees and their organizations. While safety climate (i.e., perceptions of policies and procedures related to safety that should reflect an organization's value of safety) has been established as a predictor of safety behaviors, less research has considered the possible negative pressures that could result from an environment that emphasizes safety. Though organizations may intend to create a positive safety climate, concerns about being treated differently if an employee were to be involved in a safety incident may result in unintended, but detrimental safety and health outcomes. Method: This study investigated the stigma associated with being involved in a safety-related incident in relation to self-reported safety behaviors and psychological health outcomes. The data were acquired through a two-wave prospective design, surveying workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; N = 528) who indicated they were exposed to at least one physical work stressor (e.g., heavy lifting; air quality; standing for extended periods) a few times each month or more. Results: When controlling for safety climate, safety stigma was related to decreased safety compliance and poorer psychological health. There was a marginally significant interaction between safety stigma and safety motivation in relation to safety compliance. Conclusions: These findings suggest that experiencing pressure to work safely, for fear of being evaluated negatively, may actually come at the cost of employees' safety compliance and psychological health. Practical applications: These results may be useful in assessing and intervening to improve an organization's safety climate. Organizations should closely examine the climate for safety to ensure that positive aspects of safety are not undermined by a stigmatizing pressure associated with safety in the work environment.     

Highway-rail grade crossings accident prediction using Zero Inflated Negative Binomial and Empirical Bayes method

Introduction: Recently the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a new model for accident prediction at railroad grade crossings using a Zero Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) model with Empirical Bayes (EB) adjustments for accident history (2). This new model is adopted from the work that was conducted by the authors (3–6). The unique feature of the new FRA model is that it has a single equation for all three warning devices (crossbuck, flashing light, and gates) and uses the same variables regardless of the warning devices at the crossing. Since the New FRA model incorporates the warning device category as one of the variables in its model equation, the predicted accident frequency is higher when a crossing has crossbucks than flashing lights, and higher when it has flashing lights than gates. While this model is significantly better than the old USDOT model (7), its shortcoming is that the single equation does not accurately represent the field condition. Method: This paper presents the ZINEBS model (Zero Inflated Negative binomial with Empirical Bayes adjustment System). The ZINEBS model gives three different equations depending on the type of warning device used at the crossings (gates, flashing lights, and crossbucks). The three equations use variables, some of which are common across all warning devices, while other variables are specific to a warning device. The predicted values for the ZINEBS model show a closer agreement with the field data than the new FRA model. This observation was true for all three warning device types analyzed. Practical Applications: Based on the results of this study, the ZINEBS compliments the new FRA model and should be used when the single equation is not adequately representing the role of traffic control device types and relevant variables associated with that device type.     

Early impacts of alcoholic beverage warning labels: national study findings relevant to drinking and driving behavior

After November, 1989 Federal law required a standard health warning label on all alcoholic beverage containers sold for consumption in the U.S. Results are reported from a cross-sectional national household telephone interview survey of adults, occurring approximately 6 months after implementation of the warning labels (N=2000). Implications for health warnings with respect to information processing theory, the Health Belief Model, and other theories relevant to precaution adoption are briefly reviewed and two derivative hypotheses are tested using log-linear analysis. Relationships between various personal characteristics and (a) seeing the label and (b) recalling the driving impairment message are examined for consistency with theoretical expectations. We also examine associations between message recall, drinking style, and two precautionary behaviors undertaken to avoid drinking and driving. Adjusting for apparent false positives, approximately a quarter of the sample have noticed the label 6 months after its introduction; 16% recalled the specific driving impairment message. As hypothesized, exposure to the warning was predicted primarily by consumption pattern but also was associated with a personal salience factor, that is, ever having drunk alcohol so as to be at risk when driving. About a quarter of the heavy drinkers (5 drinks or more per occasion sometime and drinking at least weekly) who ever drank and drove saw the specific warning. Of two self-regulation strategies — limiting driving after drinking and limiting drinking when about to drive — the latter was the more prevalent. Both strategies were reported more by those who were heavy drinkers, those recalling the driving impairment message, and those perceiving driving after drinking to be very dangerous, than by other individuals.     

Building Safety indicators: Part 1 – Theoretical foundation

Development of early warning indicators to prevent major accidents – to ‘build safety’ – should rest on a sound theoretical foundation, including basic concepts, main perspectives and past developments, as well as an overview of the present status and ongoing research. In this paper we have established the theoretical basis for development of indicators used as early warnings of major accidents. Extensive work on indicators have been carried out in the past, and this could and should have been better utilized by industry, e.g., by focusing more on major hazard indicators, and less on personal safety indicators. Recent discussions about safety indicators have focused on the distinction between leading and lagging indicators; however, a discussion on terms should not impede the development of useful indicators that can provide (early) warnings about potential major accidents.     

Thrill and adventure seeking in risky driving at work: The moderating role of safety climate

Introduction Within many industrialized countries, the leading cause of worker fatalities and serious injuries can be attributed to road trauma. In non-occupational research, high levels of sensation seeking personality, and specifically thrill and adventure seeking, have been associated with risky driving behaviors. In work driving literature, high organizational safety climate has been associated with reduced risky driving in work drivers. However, the extent that factors such as safety climate and thrill seeking interact in regard to work driving safety remains unclear, and the current research examined this interaction. Methods A total of 1,011 work drivers from four organizations participated in the research. Surveys were distributed online and hardcopies were sent via mail. The survey included measures of thrill and adventure seeking, safety climate and work-related driving behaviors, as well as questions relating to participant demographics and information about their work driving. Results The results demonstrated that safety climate significantly moderated the effect of thrill and adventure seeking trait on driving errors, driving violations, and driving while fatigued. Conclusion These results suggest that the development of a strong safety climate has the potential to improve work driving safety outcomes by reducing the impact of particular personality traits such as thrill seeking within an organizational context. Practical application To improve work driving safety, organizations and management need to develop strategies to encourage and foster positive work driving safety climate, particularly within work settings that may attract thrill and adventure seeking employees.     

Collectivistic orientation in teams: an individual and group-level analysis

With the increasing use of work teams in U.S. industry, understanding team members' collectivistic orientation toward group goals and activities is critical for developing cooperative and productive teams. Using the research on expectancy theory, self-efficacy, locus of control, and individualism–collectivism, collectivism is examined as both an individual difference variable and a group composition variable. One hundred and forty-eight individuals (comprising 33 groups) working on a complex and interdependent task comprised the research sample. Results indicated that individual difference variables of self-efficacy for teamwork, need for social approval, and positive past experience working in teams were related to self-report collectivism. Additionally, team collectivistic orientation was examined as a group composition variable and found to be related to cooperative team behaviors. In turn, these cooperative team behaviors acted as a mediator of the relationship between team collectivistic orientation and team performance. Results are discussed in terms of theory building and applied research. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress,work and professional satisfaction and militancy among Canadian physicians

The introduction of a national health care system in Canada has resulted in regular and increasing conflict between the medical profession, government and other political actors. The present study utilizes a stressor–strain framework to understand physician militancy in Canada. Data were collected from 2087 men and women physicians using questionnaires completed anonymously. Four groups of predictor variables identified in previous research were considered: individual demographic characteristics, practice characteristics, work stressors, and work and professional satisfactions. Empirical support for the model was found. Each panel of predictor variables had significant and unique relationships with measures of physician militancy.     

Building Safety indicators: Part 2 – Application,practices and results

Petroleum exploration and production in the Barents Sea is a controversial topic. The Goliat field outside the northern coast of Norway will be the first offshore oil development in this region, with planned production start in 2013–2014. Avoiding major accidents at Goliat is critical; not only to reduce the risks to human lives and the environment, but also to gain political acceptance. Providing early warnings of major accidents for Goliat is one of the main objectives of the research project ‘Building Safety’. The objective of this paper is to describe the development of early warnings in the form of indicators. In addition, the paper includes an overview of current status of early warnings of accidents in other major hazard industries; the nuclear power industry, the chemical process industry, and aviation. Experiences from these industries, including lessons learned from recent major accidents, have been used as important input to the development of early warning indicators.     

Comparison of Expected Crash and Injury Reduction from Production Forward Collision and Lane Departure Warning Systems

Objectives: The U.S. New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) now tests for forward collision warning (FCW) and lane departure warning (LDW). The design of these warnings differs greatly between vehicles and can result in different real-world field performance in preventing or mitigating the effects of collisions. The objective of this study was to compare the expected number of crashes and injured drivers that could be prevented if all vehicles in the fleet were equipped with the FCW and LDW systems tested under the U.S. NCAP.

Methods: To predict the potential crashes and serious injury that could be prevented, our approach was to computationally model the U.S. crash population. The models simulated all rear-end and single-vehicle road departure collisions that occurred in a nationally representative crash database (NASS-CDS). A sample of 478 single-vehicle crashes from NASS-CDS 2012 was the basis for 24,822 simulations for LDW. A sample of 1,042 rear-end collisions from NASS-CDS years 1997–2013 was the basis for 7,616 simulations for FCW. For each crash, 2 simulations were performed: (1) without the system present and (2) with the system present. Models of each production safety system were based on 54 model year 2010–2014 vehicles that were evaluated under the NCAP confirmation procedure for LDW and/or FCW. NCAP performed 40 LDW and 45 FCW tests of these vehicles.

Results: The design of the FCW systems had a dramatic impact on their potential to prevent crashes and injuries. Between 0 and 67% of crashes and 2 and 69% of moderately to fatally injured drivers in rear-end impacts could have been prevented if all vehicles were equipped with the FCW systems. Earlier warning times resulted in increased benefits. The largest effect on benefits, however, was the lower operating speed threshold of the systems. Systems that only operated at speeds above 20 mph were less than half as effective as those that operated above 5 mph with similar warning times. The production LDW systems could have prevented between 11 and 23% of drift-out-of-lane crashes and 13 and 22% of seriously to fatally injured drivers. A majority of the tested LDW systems delivered warnings near the point when the vehicle first touched the lane line, leading to similar benefits. Minimum operating speed also greatly affected LDW effectiveness.

Conclusions: The results of this study show that the expected field performance of FCW and LDW systems are highly dependent on the design and system limitations. Systems that delivered warnings earlier and operated at lower speeds may prevent far more crashes and injuries than systems that warn late and operate only at high speeds. These results suggest that future FCW and LDW evaluation should prioritize early warnings and full-speed range operation. A limitation of this study is that additional crash avoidance features that may also mitigate collisions—for example, brake assist, automated braking, or lane-keeping assistance—were not evaluated during the NCAP tests or in our benefits models. The potential additional mitigating effects of these systems were not quantified in this study.